I've recently started going back through Nocturnal and giving it a new coat of paint. No new elements, but I'm planning to go through and tighten up the earlier chapters a bit. I feel like I've improved since the story was written, so I figured I'd go back and make it the best it could be. New and improved chapters 1 through 3 are up already.
Darkroom of Requirement, or Rewrite
Hermione awoke to the sound of her boyfriend's voice. "I think I might have a Hermione-shaped bruise." Harry muttered.
Harry's voice was higher, yet strained, as though his chest was constricted. Oh, that's me. "Sorry." Hermione muttered, lifting herself off Harry's shrunken frame.
Harry used his new-found freedom to sit upright, which gave Hermione a chance to examine him. "Oh my." She reached forward to pinch one of Harry's cheeks. "You're adorable." She grinned.
"You're adorable." Harry countered with a chuckle, trying to defend his face from her attack.
"It really worked." Hermione ceased her assault and shook her head in wonder. "We both look like second years." Her smile threatened to split her face.
"Hey..." Harry began with a sly smile. "We should surprise Ron. We could take some of the potion and do it in the morning - he's always the last one out of the dorm. He'll think he woke up in the past or something." He laughed.
"No." Hermione said flatly, though after a few seconds she had to stifle a smile. I shouldn't have pictured it.
"You're no fun." Harry attempted to pout.
"Tell me that when I'm snogging you later." Hermione challenged.
"I don't think I will." Harry shook his head wisely.
"No, I don't think you will." Hermione agreed with a fond smile. She reached out to cup Harry's cheek. Harry began moving in for a kiss, but Hermione gently stopped him. "Can we wait – until the scene is set, that is?" She inquired apologetically.
"Sure." Harry smiled. It seemed she was really looking forward to creating this new memory with him, and he was glad for the chance to make her happy. "Shall we get going?"
"Definitely." Hermione agreed.
"You know, pretty much every time we were smashed together under the cloak I had a... an issue below the belt." Harry muttered as they slowly made their way to the Room of Requirement. It was nice to be able to fit under the cloak together again, but it brought back awkward memories.
"Really? I never noticed." Hermione was surprised. She chalked the oversight up to nerves resulting from proximity to the object of her desire, though naivete may have been a factor.
"Yeah. I was terrified you'd bump against it and... I don't know. Hex me and never speak to me again." He trailed off sadly.
"I wouldn't have done that." Hermione was hurt at the idea that Harry had been so afraid. "I'd have been excited to know you felt that way about me. And even if I wasn't willing to admit I felt the same, I still wouldn't have left you. I'd have taken it as a compliment, once I got over the shock." She smiled.
"Would you?" Harry asked dubiously.
"I'd like to think so, yes." Hermione said uncertainly. It was a strange thing to wonder.
"So... you wouldn't freak out, then, if I did... this?" Hermione felt something vaguely cylindrical press against her bum and immediately stopped walking.
"Did you just bump my arse with your erection?" The young witch asked flatly.
"Might have." Harry began to laugh.
"I'm starting to think maybe it's not just your physical maturity that's been dialed back." Hermione said sarcastically, though she enjoyed a private smile at her boyfriend's tawdry sense of humor.
"You say that, but I notice you're not moving." Harry whispered in the vicinity of her ear. He was still lightly pressed against her. His arms circled round to her front – one over her stomach and one rising to stroke her neck.
"You know, just because I specifically wanted to wait on a kiss..." Hermione began, her words somewhat uneven as Harry's hands wandered. "That doesn't mean I was suggesting we skip straight to this."
"Is that a complaint?" Harry murmured.
Hermione wasn't quite sure. "It's... an observation." She decided.
"Ah, so we can continue, then?" She could hear the triumphant smile in his voice.
"Not here." She said breathlessly. "In the Room. After the kiss."
"Lead on." Harry whispered, nudging her neck wish his cheek to urge her forward.
The trek to the Room of Requirement was long and tedious, and - like all other journeys made under the cloak - it resulted in some back pain. When they arrived at the section of wall that formed the gateway to the Room, the young (though recently much younger) lovers stopped in the shadow of an alcove to stretch.
"I do like being close, but traveling together under this thing is rather like being in a suitcase, don't you think?" Hermione groaned as she stretched her neck.
"It's certainly a strain." Harry agreed. "Ready to go in?"
Hermione smiled excitedly and approached the slab of ancient rock that looked entirely unlike a door. "We'd like a copy of the Gryffindor common room, please." Hermione stated clearly and politely to the wall. She paced in front of it three times. Like clockwork, a door appeared, which Harry rushed to open for his girlfriend, it being the gentlemanly thing to do. The clever witch entered, trailing a hand which Harry accepted, allowing her to lead him inside.
Harry had never seen the Room fail to deliver on a request, yet its talent for forgery continued to amaze him. It was perfect. Every cushion, every stain on every leather chair, every creaky step up to the dormitories, every piece of parchment tacked to the bulletin board, as recent as this morning (and perhaps with one or two new additions) - it was all there.
"Perfect." Hermione summarized. "Shall we?" She nodded toward the couch.
Harry smiled in response. "Aren't we going to need a camera?" He imagined Hermione would want a new version of the photo as a souvenir.
"There's one on the coffee table." She pointed to the table nearest the couch they'd be using. There was indeed a camera. Harry could have sworn there was nothing there a moment ago, but he would never be sure. The Room seemed to delight in making people wonder about things like that.
The young lovers took a seat on the couch, smiling awkwardly at one another. Intimacy came quite naturally to them by this point, but it seemed that reenacting intimacy wasn't quite as easy as it looked on paper.
"So, I'm er... supposed to be asleep, then?" Harry asked.
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "Just... just pretend." The clever young girl giggled at the absurdity of it all.
Harry closed his eyes and settled back into the couch, trying to relax his body in a way that would suggest unconsciousness. "OK. I'm asleep." He grinned, keeping his eyes shut.
Hermione shook with silent laughter. Merlin, we're odd. But we're odd together, I suppose. Harry's grin faded, and after a moment, she could almost believe he was really asleep. This was it. The scene really was indistinguishable from the photograph. Time for a rewrite.
The bushy-haired girl rose to her knees on the marshmallowy cushions, holding onto the back of the couch to maintain her balance as she leaned in toward Harry's face. She could have just turned her head and kissed him since they were seated so close to one another, but Hermione found this method of attack more appealing. More exciting. She was an inch from Harry's ear. She licked her lips, took a shallow breath, and spoke. "I love you, Harry Potter." She whispered. A twelve-year-old Hermione had said those words now.
She heard the camera click.
Hermione closed the miniscule distance to press her lips to Harry's cheek.
Click.
She dragged her lips from Harry's jaw to his mouth, keeping the contact feather-light until she was in position to kiss him properly. Two sets of lips met, and the act was punctuated by another click from the camera.
Harry gave up the illusion of slumber, reaching up to cup Hermione's cheek and respond to the kiss. She climbed into his lap, and it wasn't long before her tongue came into play.
When they came up for air, Harry wore a wolfish grin. "Is this really proper behavior for two second years?" He teased.
"No. That's why it's so much fun." Hermione answered breathlessly before returning to the task at hand.
Click.
Harry was humbled by the moments that followed. It was like watching the world being destroyed, but in reverse, so that it appeared to be fixing itself instead of falling apart. All those moments he'd wanted to reach out and touch Hermione but didn't because he feared alienating her – they faded from his mind as the new experience came into the fore. He was living a dream - pretty much every good dream he'd had when he was twelve - but it was all real. There was now a moment in time when a second-year Hermione had kissed a second-year Harry, and he'd kissed her back, and it felt very right. This is the way it should have been.
Hermione's lips had gained momentum and soon arrived on the shell of Harry's ear. The young couple were growing dizzy with desire and soon found themselves tipping over into a fevered embrace that became something of a battle for dominance. As the battle raged on, Harry dimly registered several clicks of the camera. Two small bodies fought a war of kisses, nips, bites, gropes, and breaths like puffs of steam, but eventually the steam ran out.
The young lovers drifted off in each other's arms and woke some time later to find that they had returned to their true age as they slept.
"How long were we out?" Harry murmured. He spoke with no hurry. He was far too deep in drowsy bliss to care what the answer was, anyway.
Hermione checked her watch. "Twenty minutes, maybe? I'm not sure when we fell asleep." She gave a tiny, uncaring shrug and ran her fingers through her boyfriend's jet-black hair.
"Look at that." Harry inclined his head slightly toward the coffee table in front of the couch. The camera lay on the table, surrounded by a haphazard collection of twenty or so already-developed wizarding photographs. "You took a lot of pictures." He commented. "I guess it's the Darkroom of Requirement now." Harry chuckled quietly at his own joke.
"Actually the Room took them. I didn't lift a finger toward the camera. I guess it knew what we wanted." Hermione began examining the pictures with a tired-but-radiant smile.
"It always does." Harry reminded her. Harry loved the Room of Requirement, and sometimes wondered if perhaps it didn't love him right back.